Do you believe the dead hear you and have some kind of magical power to grant your wish?
If so, why not pray to a dead relative who knew you and cared for you, instead of a dead person who died thousands of years before you and never knew you?
I believe God has enabled them to hear me and that they can intercede for me before God for what I'm asking for. They themselvews cannot "grant wishes."
If so, why not pray to a dead relative who knew you and cared for you, instead of a dead person who died thousands of years before you and never knew you?
I do. It depends on the request. Sometimes you want to pray to someone who you knew was a great saint on earth who is somehow related to the issue, like maybe St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, for a wayward Jesuit priest.